Nightcall
by Beloved-Stranger
Summary: Post The Slice Girls. Emma lives, and dreams of hunting a stag with a bow, beside a man she cannot see. Adam wanders his brother's dreams, looking for a way to save his tattered soul. And as usual, the answer to both unasked questions lies in blood...
1. Wrong

**Author's Note:** So, because I'm unable to leave well enough alone, here's a fic with what I would do with Emma if I were running the show. This is basically going to be another one of my series-of-snapshots fics.

**Spoilers/Warnings:** AU from The Slice Girls onwards, but spoilers up to and including The Born-Again Identity. (Hey Show, this whole ripping off movie titles thing? It's getting kinda lame.)

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><p><strong>Wrong<strong>

She's sick after eating that offering.

Sophie finds her and holds her hair back for her, wrinkling her button nose at the smell.

Emma sits back, flushes the toilet and goes to the sink to wash her mouth out. She's sick again.

After her belly's empty, she and Sophie sit with their backs against the tiled wall of the communal bathroom and watch the moon arch overhead through its one window; a skylight, barred against intrusion.

"Why do you think you were sick?" Sophie asks after a few minutes.

Emma shrugs. "Maybe the tribute went bad," she murmurs.

"Maybe it was Harmony's father," Sophie snickers.

Harmony is one of their dormmates, and had been given her name from a register like all the others, but her mother had made the mistake of telling her she was named after their goddess. Harmony is insufferable.

Emma rolls her eyes. "That's not possible and you know it."

Sophie just giggles again.

"Maybe there's just something wrong with _you_," a voice pipes up from the doorway. It's Harmony, glaring at them.

"Maybe there's something wrong with your _face_," Sophie throws back.

"There's nothing wrong with me or my face," Harmony snaps. "At least I didn't reject the goddess's tribute."

With that parting shot, she flounces back to the dorm.

"She is such a waste of space," Sophie mutters, taking Emma's hand in comfort.

Emma smiles at her friend, but her insides are cold.


	2. Paradigm Shift

**Paradigm Shift**

It feels like it takes a long time to die.

But she's getting there.

Then there are footsteps on the wooden floor, the thud and scrape of boot heels, and whispers in a language she thinks she should know.

In the dark, she is half-lucid, and to her fading eyes there are only shapes…

When the first hand touches her chest, she feels the bullet as it rises from its place against her vertebrae. Her whole torso tries to follow it up, but a second hand grips her shoulder, keeping her down. Smoke – herbal, incense maybe, sweet and acrid – rises in white and blue plumes from her chest, and blood flows hesitantly back the way it came. The brand on her wrist stings almost unbearably; it feels like skin is shifting, changing shape…

Hours later, she half-wakes, and the eyes that meet hers are not human, or Amazon.

And neither is she.


	3. No

**No**

When she wakes again, it's to a pair of dark eyes looking back at her, intent and yet somehow sad.

_Male_, her brain tells her, _danger!_

She sits up quickly, and reaches for her knife a second before she realizes it's not there.

"Who are you?" she demands of the man, still calmly watching her. "Where am I?"

"In my house," he tells her, "exactly where your goddess left you."

She freezes. "...Harmonia was here?" she breathes.

He smiles, slow and small and perhaps a little pitying. "No."

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> Review if ye be jammy!


	4. The Open Door

**The Open Door**

She refuses all food, and sits glaring at the man with all her might.

"You're lying to me," is all she will say when he brings her breakfast. "I want to go home."

He just looks at her, sighs as though disappointed, and leaves the food on the table by the window.

Perhaps three days after she arrives, he puts the plate down with force and snaps at her.

"So go home then," he says, dark eyes fierce.

She stares at him, surprised at this sudden aggression from her usually amiable keeper. He shakes his head at her, disgusted this time, instead of just disappointed.

"Go home," he mutters over his should as he turns to go, "and stop wasting my food."

Later, she hears the _thump-thump-thump_ of children's feet moving at high speed over wooden floors somewhere else in the house. There is a shrill of young laughter followed by her keeper's voice calling two names. She begins to wonder what lies beyond the door to this room.

She wonders if she was ever a prisoner, or if she just assumed she was.

When she tries the door handle, it isn't locked.

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> C'mon, review, ya know ya wanna…


	5. Handmaiden

**Handmaiden**

Seattle is a long way from Arizona. She doesn't know where in Arizona they are, only that there are mountains at the back of the house and the sun sets over them each night. The desert is completely alien to her, far from the northern chill and damp of her birth city. She's never seen anything like it, of course, not even in pictures.

Emma sits on the porch swing of this strange, sprawling adobe house and stares out at a ceramic blue sky that goes forever. The heat is strange too; she has no clothes for this, and had to borrow things that Fen's sister had left behind.

When she took off her coat, she saw the brand on her wrist.

Only it wasn't a brand anymore.

Instead of her tribe's symbol there's a crescent moon bisected by an arrow to turn it into a drawn bow. The tissue that outlines it is flat and pale, almost silvery. It doesn't look like a scar…more like a tattoo done in metallic ink.

It doesn't hurt anymore either.


	6. The Quarry

**The Quarry**

She dreams of night-time in a wood, and hears the sound of sharp hooves over fallen leaves.

Somewhere close by, a deer is running.

There's a bow in her hands and she knocks an arrow as she begins to run too.

To and fro, to and fro, ducking and weaving through the undergrowth and she searches for her quarry. Out of the corner of her eye she sees another shape, matching her movements; to and fro, to and fro. They're hunting as a team.

Emma smiles as they sight the deer, an eight-point stag, as they flush him into a clearing.

She draws her bow and lines up the shot.


	7. Cry Wolves

**Cry Wolves**

Under a clear night sky, scattered with more stars than she ever saw in the city, Emma sits before a bonfire and smiles. Everything is painted yellow and gold by the flames, and the warmth is a blessing against the desert chill. Far away, coyotes call to each other, their voices carried to them by the still night air.

Fen is close by; he sits on the log at right angles to Emma, with Scottie on his lap while the small boy turns a toy duck over and over in his small hands. She remembers very clearly having hands that small. It was only a month ago, after all.

Hellie is in the kitchen getting ice cream, and they can hear her chatting with the two of Fen's brothers that she brought with her, along with her own small daughter, Gabby. Thorough the open window, Emma can see Scottie's twin, Hayden, asleep in his uncle Slee's arms, face tucked into the tall man's neck.

Scottie offers the duck to his father, and Fen lets out a mock growl, smiling as he bites at the duck's head, giving it a gentle shake so that Scottie can keep hold of it. He waggles his eyebrows teasingly, and is reward by his son's laughter.

When the coyotes begin calling again, Fen puts the toy down and teaches his boy how to call back.

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> Okay, really now, reviews? It would be great to get some feedback here. I neeeeeeeeeeeed it! I need it like I need air! Okay, well, no, I need air more but reviews without asphyxiation would be nice. C'mon guys, tell me how you feel!


	8. Light Up

**AN:** And now for something completely different.

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><p><strong>Light Up<strong>

Death lied.

Death lied and when he travelled down into the cage, he left nothing behind but an empty shell and two warring angels.

Death lied and stitched Sam's soul back into his body…and then he stitched Adam's in too.

Adam woke in his brother's subconscious, fires dancing in the menacing dark of his memories. He looked behind him and saw the bright plain of Sam's conscious mind, open and vulnerable…

And then he reached for it, and the Wall solidified under his hands, spreading up and out and locking him in with Sam's horrific memories of the Cage. In the distance, but approaching fast, Adam could hear Lucifer's laughter.

He got to his feet, shaking with precognitive terror, and began to feel his way along the Wall, desperately looking for some place to hide…

Wait.

_Wait._

There.

It was an alcove, a gentle dip in the black bricks and blacker mortar of the Wall, and at its centre…a door. Felt like brushed steel under his hands, the lock a knot of metal cords. When he reached for it, the cords unwound themselves, their sides glinting in the meagre firelight, and surged forward like striking snakes to tangle around his wrist. He felt the needle tip of one jab him in the palm. Shouting in shock and pain, he pulled away, preparing to fight them, but the cords retracted instantly.

And then the door swung open.

Adam drew breath, and hurled himself through, into the vast brightness.

The door slammed shut behind him.

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><p><strong>AN2:<strong> Lol, plot twist.


	9. Father's Daughter

**AN:** Thanks to Nyx Ro and sckid, who both made totally valid points about plot, which I get because I'm being kinda coy here lol, but I promise you, we're getting there. There's a plot, it's just, uh…a bit obscure…

Also, hi Mogget :)

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><p><strong>Father's Daughter<strong>

Hellie takes her into town for supplies one day, and to get Emma some of her own clothes.

They take the truck down the dried out riverbed, wheels churning up the dust and Gabby squeaking with delight as they rise and fall over the bumps from the safety of her car-seat.

The town is small and the locals all seem to know each other, and Hellie. Old ladies coo over Gabby and peer with interest at Emma in her borrowed clothes. One young man gives her bare legs a look that could blister, and Emma feels herself flush in surprise, sticking close to Hellie as they make their way to the local department store.

There's nothing that you'd really call flattering here, but they pick up a few practical bits and pieces and a few things that Hellie promises she can alter to suit. Then they hit up the thrift shop; it's a treasure trove. Emma has fun.

Fen calls just as they finish and says he's bringing Scottie down to the dentist – emergency filling, as the little boy has just managed to crack a tooth by taking a header off the back porch – so Hellie and Emma linger outside the grocer, watching for Fen's blue Hilux.

A black four-wheel-drive pulls up, big ugly decals on the side and an obnoxious bumper sticker picking out parallels between rodeo riding and sex. Hellie's eyes narrow as a cobby, pug-faced man swaggers out. A woman and child follow, and the man leans against the front of the car and starts to smoke while the woman heads for the grocer's door.

"Kid stays here," he says through a mouthful of smoke.

The woman starts, looking uncertain and pained, then hands over the toddler and steps into the store. The man puts the baby down by his booted feet…and keeps smoking.

He finishes his cigarette and flicks the butt onto the pavement. Within reach of the little boy's grabbing hands.

Hellie's eyes narrow further. He sees this when glancing over at them.

"Got a problem?" he snaps.

Hellie puts a mild face on and shakes her head. He glances at Emma's legs in a way that makes her hunger for her blade and pulls out another cigarette.

Hellie's right hand twitches and the cigarette butt on the pavement rolls out of the toddler's reach.

Her fingers snap softly, and the man begins to choke on his smoke.

Hellie smiles.


	10. Road Not Taken

**AN: **Nyx Ro – that would be waaaaaaaay too easy :D but don't worry, I'll be dropping more clues.

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><p><strong>Road Not Taken<strong>

She remembers the night Madeline put the knife in her hand and sent her out into the dark. Out to kill Dean.

In her dream she knocks the gun from his hand without hesitating. She feels his blood spatter across her face and slick the handle of the knife against her palms. She only realizes how very green his eyes are when they're glazed and still, staring at the ceiling.

Emma wakes in a wet tangle of sheets and panic, her heart beating a tattoo against her ribs. The moon spills blue light across her bed and brings the sound of coyotes in the hills.

She settles back, breathing deep to calm her heart, and falls asleep to the lilt of their songs.


	11. Just Another Brick

**Just Another Brick**

It soon became clear why Adam was here.

The Wall was a masterpiece of metaphysical architecture…but all masterpieces of architecture require maintenance.

Death had simply picked the best maintenance man for the job. No soul but Sam knew the Cage better than Adam. No soul but Sam knew the horrors Lucifer could inflict when focusing his immense powers of concentration on a single endeavour, on a single being.

No soul but Sam would have any idea how to stem the tide of those awful, awful memories, and Sam was in no condition to maintain the Wall. So, the job fell to Adam.

Thanks to the covenant between he and Michael, Adam was mostly whole and largely unscathed by the Cage. Oh, he witnessed the horrors of it, yes, but he wasn't a gibbering wreck. He hadn't been torn apart, meticulously put back together and then taken apart again, and again, and again the way Sam had. His soul wasn't in twitching tatters that were only just figuring out how to heal themselves.

Adam was in relative working condition. Adam was mostly whole. Adam knew how to deal with the Cage, and so he was going to keep the memories of it at bay inside his brother's head.

Some might have resented it.

But every time he thought about it, Adam remembered the one time he and Sam had encountered each other under lock and key; for a moment, the shield of Michael's wings had opened as he prepared to strike at Lucifer, trying to keep the other Archangel at bay but inadvertently leaving Adam exposed.

Lucifer had reared back, eyes aflame and grinning like a striking snake – and then Sam had reached for him. Reached out for his tormenter, and struck out with his puny human fists. Lucifer's focus had re-shifted in an instant.

Just as Sam intended.

Adam had looked, for that brief instant, into his brothers eyes.

_I'm sorry._

_So am I._

There can be no resentment here. Only gratitude.


	12. Orphans

**Orphans**

"Who is he?" Emma asks.

"Who?"

"This one, here." She points to the picture on the window sill near the bookshelf. "The short one."

Gand, smiles, slowly and picks up the frame. "I'd almost forgotten," he says softly. "I remember this day. It was a few years ago, when Gabby was a baby."

"Is he one of your brothers too?" Emma asks.

Gand shakes his head. "No, see, there are the twins, Val and Nav." They're tawny haired and tawny eyed, grinning like they just invented breathing – the third man in the picture is older, but looks a great deal like them…

"Oh," Emma says quietly. Gand smiles again.

"Yes," he says, "that is our father."

"Gabby's named after him, right?"

"Yes." His smile is rueful now. "I think Hellie was always his favourite. He liked to look after her more, thought she needed it since she was the only girl. She liked proving him wrong, of course."

Emma scans the other family pictures, silently picking out Hellie and Fen and their brothers; Gand, with his enormous snake tattoo, and Slee who is so pale and soft-spoken, and Val and Nav who travel so far and so fast with the…

With the goddess.

"Gand."

"Mmm?"

"Will she come back for me?"

Gand looks down at her with sad brown eyes. "It depends who you mean," he says gently. "One I can say for sure, the other…we cannot know, _kjæreste_.

"We can only wait."

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> _kjæreste_ is Norwegian for 'sweetheart'. Fen's siblings are Hellie, Gand, Slee, Nav and Val. Scottie and Hayden are Fen's twin sons, Gabby is Hellie's daughter.

Now, guess who their dad is, given the clues above. I can't wait to see who gets it.


	13. Ole Yella

**AN:** Alright, so maybe I kinda suck at some aspects of the intrigue thing (I'm totally blushing right now).

On the upswing, EVERYBODY WINS. Also, wee!Sam.

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><p><strong>Ole Yella<strong>

Despite the memories of the Cage being locked up on the other side of the Wall, Adam discovered that Sam's remaining memories were not what you'd call charmed. He tried to find his way through them in between the upkeep of the Wall…but mostly he just got lost a lot, caught up on random eddies and swirls of thought, remembrances, dreams…

The first time it happened he ended up in a park.

Sam was only just four, in a sandpit, and apparently completely alone. It could be that John and Dean were somewhere just out of sight in the actual memory…but this was Sam's dream, and here he was by himself.

Or wished he was.

Adam took a cautious step forward and sat on the wooden siding of the sandpit.

Little Sam glanced up at him, but kept playing, fastidiously going about moulding the damp sand into the first turret of a fat castle.

"Hi there," Adam tried.

"Not supposed to talk to strangers," Sam informed him, with a weighty look from under his bangs.

Adam smiled despite himself. "It's okay, we're brothers."

Sam frowned a bit. "Really?"

"Really really."

Sam eyed him for another few seconds and then shrugged. "'Kay."

They played together for a while, and Adam found himself enjoying Sam at this age – despite all the crazy that must have been permeating the Winchesters' lives, at four Sam was still just a little boy like any other, if a little shy.

The dream started to show itself though, when other memories begin to encroach. A dark figure appeared behind Sam on the horizon of this endless green plain. Adam watched his little-big brother hunch down, plastic spade frozen above his crumbling castle.

Even from this distance, he could see the figure's glinting yellow eyes. The demon smiled at him, teeth bright and blunt and malicious.

Adam watched him, eyes narrowed, and put a hand on Sam's small back.

"It's okay," he murmured, "I won't let him get any closer."

And he didn't.


	14. A Small Song

**A Small Song**

She remembers the first time Fen put a bow in her hands.

She was so nervous her hands were damp with sweat and her heart thundered inside her like she'd been running.

"What if I break it?"

Fen smiled indulgently. "Just be gentle. Like this, see?"

She watched as he drew his own bow back, took special note of how he gripped the centre of the belly, the tension visible in the limbs and they arced towards him. The bowstring was quivering very gently, and she could _hear it_, like the smallest of songs.

He withdrew, letting that song wind down to a slow end, and gestured for Emma to raise her bow and copy him. This time they drew together, twin smooth motions, Emma feeling that new tension and listening for her own version of the small song. She heard it, and it was close and bright and all for her. When Fen showed her how to knock an arrow and loose it towards a distant target, the song reached a pitch and finished on a high, sweet note.

Emma bit her lip, turning delighted eyes to Fen. His smile of approval brought a flush to her cheeks.

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> I know its short, but if you click the 'next' button...


	15. Daydream Believer

**Daydream Believer**

Each night that Sam dreamed, Adam met another piece of his brother.

In a library in Lincoln, Nebraska, Adam became a librarian and watched from behind his desk as Sam researched Kitsune and cast longing glances at the blonde girl two tables over. He smiled when he overheard the whispered, "How do you talk to girls," and felt a pang upon witnessing Sam's rejection.

"Maybe she's shy," he offered, as Sam slumped over with his pile of books. He checked them out and gave his big-little brother a rueful smile. "Shy girls can be like that, y'know. Makes 'em feel safer."

Sam gave him a pained look. "You saw that."

"Dude. Everyone saw that. It's okay, though, she'll be back. She practically lives at that table. You just gotta wait for your moment."

Sam smiled this time. "I guess. Thanks, for the books."

"S'cool. Good luck."

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><p>In Palo Alto, he became the lone science major that met with a bunch of pre-laws and literary undergrads for coffee and study sessions. He and Sam were discussing the finer points of medical ethics when Brady arrived, looking sleepless as usual, but with a blonde girl trailing him, smiling uncertainly.<p>

Adam looked at Sam, at his breathless expression and his eyes locked on that girl, and knew who she must have been; several memories down the line, Adam was one of the coroners that gently retrieved Jessica Lee Moore's remains from her and Sam's apartment.

He wanted to say something. Wanted to but…

But he was only a bystander here. Only here but accident, default, trick of fate.

So he smiled, clapped his obliviously brother on the back and said, "Outta your league, dude, but good luck."

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><p>In Bourbon, Illinois, Adam sat in a greasy spoon and sipped his coffee at the front counter while Sam, currently about thirteen, showed him magic tricks in between bouts of homework. He helped Sam with his natural sciences project in between picking a card, any card, and said, "that's the one alright," when Sam held up the queen of clubs (his card was the three of hearts). The waitress who promised to keep an eye on Sam (while Dean is out looking for a witness to a ritual sacrifice and John is hunting the coven leader) watched them indulgently as she refilled the salt-shakers and gave Adam half-price coffee refills.<p>

"You don't need to do that," he whispered to her.

"You're helpin' me out, hon. Don't worry about it."

Adam knew that in the original memory, Sam had done the project alone and waited for Sheryl's break to show her the card trick. He'd flubbed it then, too, but Sheryl had smiled, like she was doing now, and said, "Good luck with that, honey."

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><p>For a few months, Sam woke from his sleep refreshed, safe, in control, while his younger brother re-learned everything he thought he knew about his father's family.<p>

For a few months…and then the cracks began to show.


	16. Interloper

**Interloper**

There are two dead coyotes in the riverbed.

Fen is staring at them, his eyes hard, while his younger brothers look on with heartbroken faces. Val and Nav arrived today, full of joy and vigour, only to falter when they found the bodies lying mutilated in the dust.

"What happened to them?" Emma breathes. She doesn't think she's ever seen such a sad thing in her life.

"A hunter," Nav says, subdued. Emma frowns. When Nav sees he explains, "Not the kind of hunter you know of. This one probably works for 'pest control'."

"Or he's just doing it for kicks," Val snarls, lip curling to show frighteningly sharp canines. "This wasn't a hunt, it was a slaughter; he's taken their tails as trophies."

"And their teeth," Hellie says sadly. She and Gand are gently wrapping the bodies in old sheets, blotting the blood from their docked tails and mouths. "We should get them buried. There's a spot under the mesquite grove…"

Fen nods. "Alright."

"What about the hunter?" Val demands.

"We'll deal with him later. For now…the rest of their pack will be somewhere in the hills, waiting for them. Someone will need to go and see them."

"I'll go," Nav says quietly, "Val?"

Val nods, lips pressed into a thin, angry line.


	17. Over

**Over**

It started small: just one crack, a fissure, really. Adam patched it and scouted around for any incursions, stamping out any traces of darkness he found, though there were memories…little fragments of his life Before, without his soul, that leaked through and could not be swept back. They felt cold, numbing to the touch when Adam tried to corral them, and slid away from him like they were Teflon-coated.

Adam gritted his teeth and let them be; they would be painful for Sam to remember, but they wouldn't break him like memories of the Cage would.

So. It started small.

And then it got bigger.

Adam fought against it for what felt like years, though it was probably only one; patching up leaks, rebuilding sections where he could, trapping memories that got free and trying to contain them…but it was like shoving shit uphill with a sharp stick. However fast he worked to repair the Wall, things kept getting through, getting to Sam, blasting him with pain and fear and helpless rage. Lucifer's laughter chased his dreams no matter how hard Adam tried to drown it out.

Then Castiel came, and the next thing Adam knew he was watching, horrified, as the Wall came down completely, crashing at his feet like the breaking of a tsunami over an unsuspecting beach. Sam's conscious mind was overwhelmed, the bright plains dimmed under a tide of despoiling darkness and ugly red flames, their half-light bruising everything they touched…

There was a tearing sensation, Adam felt like he was being ripped apart – and then light. Strange light, _daylight_. He was in an alleyway, watching as the angel disappeared and Sam collapsed under the weight of his memories.

When he tried to touch Sam's arm, tried to get him up, tried to help him…Adam's hand passed right through his brother's arm.

No.

No!

"NO!" Adam shouted, unheeded.

He was a spirit…a separate entity again, trapped in the real world, tied to Sam and doomed to haunt him…

…and unable to help him.

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> DUN DUN DUN! How will our hero get out of _this_ jam?


	18. The Animal Inside

**The Animal Inside**

It's like her dream, but this time she knows the hunter who walks beside her, his bow drawn with an arrow knocked at the ready.

"Come," Fen says softly, "off the track. He's here."

In the hills around them, coyotes are calling, their cries long and thin and sorrowful. They are joined by two other voices; deeper, throatier.

_Wolves._

They wait, and the interloper shows himself. He looks confused, unsettled, twisting first one way and then another as he tries to pinpoint the source of the pack's cries. They follow him surreptitiously as he climbs higher in the hills, and their feet never make a sound.

It all goes wrong when they hit a dry stream.

The track heads up sharply, becoming a set of narrow terraces in the side of a near vertical slope, almost like a set of stairs. In his growing fear and confusion, hunter tries to climb it, but these steps were not meant for clumsy human feet.

It feels like it's happening in slow motion – like seeing Sam raise his gun to her, seeing him pull the trigger without hesitating, like running in those woods with the stag panting ahead of her, hearing the footfalls of her hidden companion – as the hunter steps too hurriedly and slips on the dust. Down, down, down, bouncing over the stones and rolling, too shocked and winded to even yell, his rifle lost somewhere in the scrub, until he comes to a rest in the streambed, stunned and gasping. There's blood on his mouth, and flowing steadily from one leg; the bone of his shin has snapped cleaning and gone straight through the skin of his calf.

They watch, unmoving, as he struggles weakly, crying out when he tries to moved his damaged leg.

"Fen," Emma breathes, "what…?"

"Wait," he breathes back, "watch."

She does, gaze intent upon the fallen man, watching until the sun begins to sink, and his yells of pain and calls for help begin to subside into sobs and prayers.

When the sun slips below the hills bracketing the horizon, he starts to shiver from fear of cold.

Its then that the coyotes' cries die down, sinking into ominous silence. Emma draws her bow, wary of the change. Fawn and silver bodies begin to collect in the thin shadows, watching the fallen man with curious eyes. One by one they come forward, edging closer and closer...

One gets close enough to touch the man's hand and he yells with surprise, shouting at them to get back, get back, you little bastards! But they creep closer, closer, and he's too weak with blood-loss and cold to fight them off when they…

When the lie down next to him, pressing their sides to his and tucking their muzzles over his chest and limbs. They step daintily around his injured leg, careful not to disturb it, although one female comes over and gently licks the blood from his face. The hunter begins to sob in earnest, finally realizing what it happening, and the little female never falters, simply cleaning the tears from his cheeks as well.

"What is this?" Emma whispers, shaken and disbelieving.

"Mercy," Fen says softly, "forgiveness."

Somewhere in the hills, two lupine voices rise up in benediction and solace.


	19. Spinneret

**AN:** OMG Hi guys! I'm so sorry its taken me so long to update but RL has been making me its bitch lately. I've got work placement coming up and assignments and Boyfriend is flying away for a month in about a week and its making me crazy D: Anyway, here's two chapters filled with Adam and Co for you.

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><p><strong>Spinneret<strong>

The horrific thing about it was that every horrible vision Sam saw, Adam saw too.

Chains shot from the ceiling and dragged Sam, choking, upwards – and Adam saw it, but also saw Sam's true form, insensible at Bobby's kitchen table.

He saw the basement transformed into a blood strewn, red-lit mess of chains and terror.

He saw Lucifer swanning about with a smug smile on his face, taunting Sam with the 'illusion' of freedom – and was powerless to stop him.

He charged the Devil, struck out at him, shouted, screamed, but every time his fists passed through him like he was air.

As time went on, he ignored Lucifer, and turned to Sam, trying everything he could think of to get his brother to snap out of it _because he's not real, Sam! He's. Not. REAL!_

But he was a young spirit, tethered to a damaged soul and rendered powerless by the hand of an angel. He could rail at Sam for hours and Sam wouldn't so much as twitch. He could reach for him a hundred-thousand times, and Sam wouldn't flinch. Some days he just wanted to grab Sam and shake him until his teeth rattled – but _that_ would never happen.

Mostly he settled sullenly in the back of the Impala and watched Sam struggle, snipping at the spectre of Lucifer that shared the rear bench seat with him, never expecting an answer.

That is, until the day Bobby died.

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><p>Adam hovered by the glass doors to the emergency ward, leaning against it and watching sadly as the last father figure his brothers had ever known left this world.<p>

Or not.

A figure flickered into life on the opposite side of the bed and stepped back, startled as he caught sight of Sam and Dean, his own body and finally…

"Adam?"

"Bobby?" Adam levered himself effortlessly upright. "What're you doing here?"

"What's it look like, kid?"

Adam shook his head, appalled. "No, no, you didn't, _tell me you didn't_, you idiot! You can't stay here!"

Bobby scowled at him. "No, you listen to me, you little idjit. I've never taken being told what to do well, and I'm be damned if I start now."

Adam could only stare at him. "You _are_ damned. This is like hell, but worse."

Bobby frowned at him and Adam laughed, coasting along the edge of hysteria.

"I can see everything – I've seen everything, since Sam got his soul back – but I can't do anything about it. I'm not in his head anymore, I can't help him, I can't get him to listen to me."

Adam's fists balled.

"All you're going to do is torture yourself, Bobby."

Bobby swung back to look at Sam and Dean where they stood, shattered and lost, staring at the empty shell of his body.

"That's what you think," Bobby said, eyes lit up with some kind of fire.

Adam watched him, perplexed…

…and something like hopeful.


	20. Sweet Child of Mine

**Sweet Child of Mine**

When Dean got back with the flask, Bobby's face seemed permanently set in an expression of horror.

"What happened?" Adam asked immediately concerned.

"Amazons," Bobby said, shaking his head. "Dean got one of 'em pregnant, the idjit, and now the sprog's growing quicker'n weeds. She'll be full grown in a matter of days, and when she is she'll come for Dean."

"Can we help them? I mean we've been able to turn a few pages before…"

"I just don't know, kiddo," Bobby said, sitting down heavily and scrubbing his whiskers with one hand. Even for a ghost, he looked tired. "They aren't even that far along the track yet."

"So for now…"

"For now we'll have to watch. Again."

Adam sat down beside him and watched his brothers discuss…Emma.

"I have a niece," he said.

"Looks like."

"A niece, who will be an adult two days from now."

"Less, actually."

"And she's going to kill Dean?"

Bobby sighed again. "She'll try. That's how this works, y'know. They let you knock 'em up, raise the resulting girl and then she proves herself to her tribe by killing her daddy."

Adam turned to Bobby. "Dean'll let it happen, you know that, right? He's got this really horrendous blind spot when it comes to family, and she's his blood. He'll try and save her."

Bobby looked miserable. "Oh, I know alright," he murmured. "Seen it first-hand more times than you have. Been on the receiving end, too." He glanced at Adam. "We'll help, anyway we can, but…I think when the time comes it's going to be up to Sam."

"He'll kill Emma."

"Without hesitating," Bobby confirmed, going to reassuring, but Adam still looked worried.

"It'll cut Dean up. He'll hate it, Bobby."

Bobby could only shake his head sadly. "Can't have it both way, kiddo."

Adam cast him a sidelong look. "That's what you think."

Bobby narrowed his eyes at the kid. "What're you playing at?"

"You know we're being tracked right? Have been for the past three months." Adam looked back at Sam and Dean, bickering over his niece. "I think it's time to send up a flare."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> So...are we seeing where this is going?


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